As a bricoleur, Madonna makes a good bricklayer. She has taken homage and lowered it to a pop-art form. To be a fan of Madonna is to be excited by the fun pastime: Can you guess who I'm referring to...now? There are countless examples of Madonna aping, quoting or subtly suggesting other artists' work and other pop-culture phenomena. This is true of almost every pop artist—pop will eat itself. But she has a special knack for choosing things that are just mainstream enough that her smart fans can see what she's up to, and just obscure enough that the bulk of her fans and casual consumers have no clue. It's when Madonna veers into the very obscure that she gets in trouble, because if only a handful of people understand that she's referencing an artist's work, then couldn't it be argued that she is benefiting from that work as if it were wholly new, wholly her own?

Yes, it could and it even has. Successfully. When Madonna's ineffective but glam "Hollywood" video copied pose after pose from Guy Bourdin, a photographer about 1% of Madonna fans may have known, his estate sued her ass and she ponied up.

Madonna has gotten away with (probably, in almost all cases, with good reason) far more than she's been nailed on. Her greatest video, "Vogue," is basically a Horst portfolio. The legendary photographer called her out on it at the time, but cheerfully joked that she should trade a nude sitting in return. Madonna vibed off Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" on her "Physical Attraction," posed like Garbo on Island, posed like Marilyn Monroe (or more to the point, posed like Marilyn Monroe in the same style Monroe had been photographed by shooters like Bert Stern or filmed by directors like Howard Hawks), pulled an audio-visual Cyndi Lauper on her Who's That Girl Tour and has even copied herself, via lyrical flashbacks like "let your body move to the music/let your body go with the flow" popping up on "Deeper and Deeper" and with numerous references to her own catalog on Confessions On A Dance Floor.

Is Madonna a thief? She's said all great art involves ripping off. I tend to agree. I think art and commerical art are reactions. While some artists are truly unique and their mindscapes are so impenetrable that it becomes part of their appeal (Bjork, Picasso), others use language we can all understand when expressing what they'd like to say.

Which brings me to the following anonymous analysis of similarities between Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor and The Who's Tommy.

If anyone knows the author, please clue me in. I'll put his/her words in quotes till then. The analysis is interesting in that the references are among the most subtle I've seen. They may be accidental. Certainly, Madonna and/or Steven Klein had to have been going for Ann-Margret with her Rolling Stone cover. Certainly they were going for Tina Turner as the Acid Queen in L'Uomo Vogue. But are all of the references intentionally Tommy? If so, they're pretty cunning and cunningly pretty:

UPDATE: This analysis was done by "Robster at MadonnaMad.com." Check here for that info, and to see the images, which I believe are expired in the links below.

"Here are some visual relations between the movie Tommy and the COADF artwork:

pinball versus discoball on display
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad01.jpg

Tommy can only see his true self in the mirror, but
it's also his "cage". The position of the mirrors for
the COADF shoot is an exact replica of certain shots
in the movie "Tommy".
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad02.jpg

Tina Turner as the acid queen, Madonna in the exact
same outfit, also dancing wildly. Also look at the
handwritten writing on the tina turner single cover.
Look familiar?
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad03.jpg

In the movie a mirrored effect was used in certain
scenes, which was also used in the LIWB footage for
the Koko performance
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad04.jpg

Tommy's mother, consumed by superficial things such as
good looks, clothes, glamourous lifestyles etc at one
point resides in a completely white room, as does
Madonna in part of the COADF shoot
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad05.jpg

Later, when she breaks Tommy's curse/cage she is seen
wailing across the room trying to get HIM and herself
out of their current state of being. Madonna is also
seen throwing herself at the door...
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad06.jpg

After Tommy's cage is broken and he is back to normal
again and starts his cult, Tommy's mother abandons all
the things she was so consumed by. She rejects
superficial things and goes through life without
make-up, fancy clothes and hides her hair under a
scarf. Which reminded me of this picture of Madonna
from the shoot
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad07.jpg

These two pictures from the movie Tommy feature items
that are believed to be part of the tour staging
(mirrorballs in the first and that bright thing in the
other)
***POSSIBLE TOUR SPOILER IMAGES****
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/robster16/tommycoad08.jpg

The story for the film version of Tommy in a nutshell:

Tommy is the fictitious biography of Tommy Walker.
Tommy's father, Captain Walker, had been listed as
missing in action during World War I, but he returns
unexpectedly in 1921 kills his wife's new lover in
front of the seven-year-old Tommy. Tommy's mother and
father enjoin him that "you didn't hear it, you didn't
see it ... you won't say nothing to no-one", and Tommy
retreats into deafness, dumbness, and blindness as a
consequence. He has a vision of a tall stranger
dressed in silvery robes with a golden floor-length
beard, and the vision sets him on an internal
spiritual journey, learning to interpret all physical
sensations as music. During the remainder of his
childhood Tommy's parents seek out various treatments
and cures for him, while Tommy suffers sexual and
physical abuse at the hands of several extended family
members. On Christmas, his parents despair about the
fate of Tommy's soul, as they realize he is unaware of
Jesus or prayer. However, Tommy learns to play a
pinball machine and soon becomes the master of the
game and an international celebrity. His parents
eventually locate a doctor who promises a "miracle
cure", but all tests indicate that Tommy is actually
capable of sight, speech, and hearing, and that his
condition is due to an "inner block". Tommy is finally
cured when his mother, frustrated that Tommy seems
only to see his own reflection, shatters the mirror in
a fit of rage. Tommy's cure becomes a public sensation
and he attains guru-like status. Thereafter he assumes
a quasi-messianic mantle and tries to lead his fans to
an "enlightenment" like his own (requiring followers
to play pinball while wearing eyeshades, earplugs, and
a cork), but the heavy-handedness of his cult and the
exploitation of its followers by his family and
associates causes his followers to revolt against him.

My perspective on this in relation to Madonna:

Storywise Tommy is much like Madonna's life, of course
not literally but you'll know what I mean. Madonna has
said time and time again that she was "trapped" in a
certain state of mind, obsessed with the superficial
aspects of life, glamour/fame etc, etc. Battling with
her own religious demons, dogma's and questions. Then
after releasing herself from the "inner block" she
found hapiness and was "cured" of this mindset (thanks
to kabbalah? ). She then set about to share this
enlightenment with others (promoting kaballah in
various ways, among them the "American Life" album)
becoming a public sensation and getting guru-like
status for her own "cult" with "merchandise", books,
red string etc. But then due to the money factor and
people getting sick and tired of the overkill of
indoctrination and focus on that aspect of her life
people started to revolt and call what she considers
her saviour a cult and craze and question her sanity.
I think Madonna's use of the movie "Tommy" is a
sarcastic comment and view on what happened to her the
last couple of years before "COADF". How many times
has she not said that "she's been blind, but now she
has seen the light", JUST like Tommy.

She visualized it by using several style elements from
the movie Tommy, in which you can see tommy and his
mother for instance going from church group to church
group (one even adoring and praying to statues of
Marilyn Monroe), seeking refuge in drugs (the acid
queen), and eventually Tommy starting his own cult
based around pinball, using that pinball as a
trademark sign used in "religious symbols",
merchandise etc, etc. You could even go as far as to
say that the discoball she is holding in several shots
is a refference to the pinball Tommy is holding and
adoring in "Tommy"."